This cherry rice chicken saffron recipe is albaloo polo: Persian rice layered with sweet-tart sour cherries and served with saffron chicken. Almond and pistachio slivers add a crisp finish to the red, white and golden rice.
The original quantities make a large platter for roughly 8 to 10 people. Sour cherries vary greatly in sharpness, so taste the fruit before deciding how much of the finished syrup to add to the rice.
Ingredients
- 1 kg long-grain or basmati rice
- 2 kg fresh or frozen pitted sour cherries
- 1 kg sugar
- 1 medium chicken, cut into serving pieces
- 1 medium onion, quartered
- 150 ml neutral cooking oil, divided
- 1 teaspoon finely ground saffron
- Slivered almonds and pistachios, as needed
- Salt, to taste
Cook the sour cherries briefly
Put the pitted cherries in a wide non-reactive saucepan and sprinkle the sugar over them. Leave them for 30 minutes if using fresh fruit, so some juice begins to form.
Set the pan over medium-low heat and bring the cherries to a gentle boil. Cook for 10 minutes, then lift the fruit out with a slotted spoon. Long cooking can darken the cherries and make them lose their shape.
Reserve a few spoonfuls for decorating the platter. Simmer the remaining syrup on its own until it lightly coats a spoon. You will need only part of it for the rice; cool and refrigerate any clean surplus in a covered container.
Prepare the saffron chicken
Put the chicken, onion, half of the saffron, a little salt and 1 cup water in a saucepan. Cover and simmer gently until the chicken is cooked through and about 1 cup of cooking liquid remains.
Move the chicken to a plate. Strain and reserve the liquid, discarding the onion. When the meat is comfortable to handle, either remove the bones and break it into large pieces, as in the original recipe, or leave the serving pieces whole for a more formal platter.
For an even saffron infusion, prepare it before the chicken goes on the heat. Our guide to brewing saffron explains the method.
Parboil the rice
Rinse the rice until the water runs mostly clear, then soak it in salted water for 1 hour. Bring a large pot of water to a rolling boil, add the drained rice and cook until the grains are tender on the outside but still firm in the centre. Drain immediately.
Take care not to overcook at this stage. The rice will steam again with the cherry layers, and soft grains can turn sticky under the fruit.
Layer the albaloo polo
Pour 3 tablespoons of oil into a large heavy-based pot. Add a layer of rice, then a loose layer of drained sour cherries. Continue alternating rice and fruit, finishing with rice. Keep the reserved decorating cherries out of the pot.
Mix 1/2 cup of the chicken liquid with 2 tablespoons of oil and 2 to 3 tablespoons of cherry syrup. Drizzle it over the rice. The amount of syrup is intentionally modest: adding too much can make the grains wet and turn the whole dish overly sweet.
Cover with a tea-towel-wrapped lid and cook over medium heat for 5 minutes, until steam forms. Reduce the heat to low and steam for 35 to 45 minutes.
Add the nuts and finish steaming
Rinse the almond slivers quickly and pat them dry. Ten to 15 minutes before the rice is ready, scatter some almonds and pistachios over the top. Replace the lid promptly so the steam does not escape.
Mix a few spoonfuls of the cooked rice with the remaining saffron infusion. Mix another small portion with a spoonful of cherry syrup. These golden and pink portions are for decorating, not separate layers that need more cooking.
Build the serving platter
Gently lift the cherry rice onto a large warm platter. Arrange the chicken through the centre or around the sides. Finish with the reserved cherries, saffron rice, pink cherry rice and the remaining almond and pistachio slivers.
Bring extra cherry syrup to the table only if guests want a sweeter serving. A cucumber-and-herb salad or plain yoghurt gives the rich fruit rice a cool, savoury contrast.
Chicken and lamb options
Check the chicken at its thickest point before removing it from the cooking liquid. The official endpoint is 74°C (165°F). If using lamb instead, cook it until tender and follow the appropriate endpoint in the official safe-temperature chart.
The lamb option changes the cooking time but not the cherry-rice method. Use large tender pieces rather than ground meat if you want to keep the structure of the original dish.
What keeps the colour bright?
- Cook the cherries for only 10 minutes and drain them promptly.
- Reduce surplus syrup separately instead of boiling the fruit for longer.
- Parboil the rice only until it has a firm centre.
- Use a small amount of syrup in the pot and reserve bright fruit for the platter.
- Add the final saffron rice and nuts at serving time.
This dish contains tree nuts. Keep the almonds and pistachios off a separate portion if anyone at the table has a nut allergy, and use clean utensils for that portion.
